Needle-threader.



No. 698,855.. Patented Apr. 29, I902.

a. PRINT Z.

NEEDLE THBEADER;

. (Application filed Nov. 18, 1901.) (No Model.)

Fl Z.

A I |b| c Fig. A 1% c Fig.4. c mum/a lbl v WITNESSES! INVENTOR MW M E ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT GFFICE.

GEORGE PBINTZ, OF AAOHEN, GERMANY.

NEEDLE-THREADER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 698,855, dated April 29, 1902. Application filed November 13, 1901. Serial No. 82i167. (No model.)

needle-threaders adapted to enter or pass through the eye of the needle, and having means for securing the thread and drawing it through the eye of the needle; and the object of my invention is to provide means whereby the thread will be securely held in the threader until the needle is threaded.

Previous needle-threaders of the class described have been defective in that the thread was laid on an open hook and was not securely held in the threader, so that it was liable to fall off before it could be drawn through the eye of the needle. caught in the eye of the needle unless great 'care was used, thereby breaking one or both. The open form of hook employed also caught the fibers of the silk or thread, thereby roughening or even breaking it. I remedy these difficulties by means of the novel arrangement and combination of parts illustrated in enlarged and exaggerated form in the accompa- 'nying drawings, in which Figure l is a side view of that form of threader adapted to enter and pass through the eye of the needle. Fig. 2 is a top view of the same. Fig. 3 is a side view of that form of the device provided with a handle and adapted to enter but not pass through the eye of the needle. Fig. 4 is a top view of the same.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several drawings.

' The needle-threader shown in Figs. 1 and 2 consists of a fiat strip of metal having a body part A of such size as to enable it to pass through the eye of the needle. The ends a and 9 may be tapered to facilitate the easy insertion and removal of the threader. At or near one end 0 a substantially L-shaped opening B is made in the flat strip of metal to form a hook and in which the thread is inserted through the opening I) when by reason of the The projecting hook'also' peculiar shape of the opening and hook it is securely held in the part d. After the thread has been inserted the end a is pushed into the eye of theneedle and then passed through,

drawing the thread after it. The loose end of the thread is then pulled out of the opening B, and the operation of threading the needle is completed.

If desired, the end a can be inserted into the eye of a needle and the thread placed in the L-shaped opening, when the whole can be withdrawn, thus threading the needle. In this form of the device I prefer to employ a handle such as that shown at C in Figs. 3 and 4. This handle may be made integral with the threader or separately and then attached in any suitable manner.

The corners of the L-shaped opening may be rounded, as at f in Fig. 3, and the upper walle of the hook may be lower than the body of the threader, as shown in Fig. 3, thus preventing the hook from catching in the eye during the operation of threading. This lowering of the wall e causes the eye of the needle to strike a point at some distance from the opening I) as the thread and threader are passed through or withdrawn from the eye of the needle and greatly lessens the liability of the eye catching in the opening b, whereby the breaking of the needle or threader,or both, is prevented.

I am aware that long prior to my invention needle-threaders had been made which were adapted to enter the eye of a needle-and provided with hooks to engage the thread. I

therefore do not claim such a device broadly;

but

What I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, in a needle-threader of the class described, of a body portion having a substantially L-shaped opening at or near one end in which the upper wall e of the hook is lower than the body of the threader.

2. The combination, in a needle-threader of the class described, of a handle, a body portion having a substantially L-shaped opening at or near the end in which the upper wall a of the hook is lower than the body portion.

3. A needle-threader of the class'described, I In testimony whereof I have signed my consisting of a body piece or bar of rectanname to this specification in the presence of gular cross-section, havinga substantially L- two subscribing witnesses.

shaped opening at or near one end, in. which GEORGE PRINTZ. 5 the opening I) is placed at right angles to the Witnesses:

longer axis of the bar, and the opening d ex 0. E. BRUNDAGE,

tends along said axis toward the nearer end. H. QUADFLIEG. 

